So This Is What 2009 Feels Like.
Wow. This is it. My first post of 2009. What to say, what to say.
Listen, I'd love to give you this big speech on how awesome 2009 is so far, but the truth is I'm still dragging my ass from the New Years Eve festivities. Sure, Jack Daniels is all buddy-buddy the night of, but the next morning he's not so fucking friendly, I'll tell you that. And so I'm going to turn the floor over to you folks, with some reader email I've had backed up for a little while. Enjoy listening to yourselves!
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Ernie, I have visited your site off and on for several years and want to say great job and keep up the good work. Seeing Nick's "Call before you dig" pictures reminded me of some pictures I had from work. I too work for a telephone/internet company. Here are some pictures of one of our fiber optic cables. It seems delivery truck driver snagged it and pulled it off the pole. The best part was it laid in the parking lot for a few weeks before the splice case was eventually hit by a car and spilled its guts. Needless to say this made for a bad day. Enjoy! Josh
Hi Ernie, Not sure if you caught The Kennedy Center Honors on Tuesday night, but two of the Honorees were Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. After the 9/11 attacks The Who played at the Concert for New York. That concert was a tribute to the first responders, whose spirit had risen as pure, selfless good in the face of monstrous evil. Lore has it Townshend and Daltrey were so inspired they resolved their differences and played the concert. Needless to say The Who stole the show. So, when time came to honor Daltrey and Townshend, the Kennedy Center secretly invited first responders of New York's Finest and New York's Bravest to perform for The Who, just as The Who had once performed for them. (of course no one knew they would be there, especially Daltrey and Townshend) Here's the clip of the whole tribute. The last song is Rob Thomas's version of "Baba O'Riley" accompanied by 90 members of the Port Authority Police and the NYPD along with 30 members of the FDNY, singing "Teenage wasteland, it's only teenage wasteland,"....Too Cool! Take Care & Happy New Year. Geo
Ernie: The tone-deaf idiot who sent the “Barack the Magic Negro” CD, Chip Saltsman, is a dead ringer for Quagmire. (PS: no black people are *ever* named “Chip.”) Love the site as always, glad to have helped a little for LBEH, thanks for doing both. -- best, Howard
Hi Ernie, recently 5 Guys burgers setup their first store here in Portland, OR (up at the other end of town) and on your recommendation I tried it out. Sweet Jesus titty fucking Christ they make a good burger. This morning the wife tells me that I need to check out the new strip mall that is going up right down the street and what do see? (see attached) It's walking distance to my house but not far enough away to burn off all the calories I'm going to intake eating in there. I'll be a fat fuck by this time next year. -Don
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Here Don, don't say I never did anything for you.
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Hi Ernie, Love the site, it is always good for a laugh or provocation. You seem an intelligent, reasonable guy, so I thought I could ask about the concealed carry issue without instant flaming. You see, I am an Aussie. We just don't have the gun culture here that exists in the USA. I am not opposed to people owning and responsibly using firearms. It isn't for me, but nor is it my place to stop others. I am curious why you feel the need to have a concealed pistol for every day life, though. Do you carry it all the time? Is it just for Sunday best? Or do you only carry it when you see a likely need, such as wandering a bad neighbourhood at night? Maybe it is more than that, asserting the right just to maintain the right? I'd love to hear your thoughts, Iain
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A clear, well thought out question with genuine curiosity behind it.... why would I flame you? Geez, I'm not a monster ya know.
A gun culture here in the USA? Let me think about that for a minute. A gun culture? Yeah, yeah I guess you could say that's true. We fought for our freedom using guns. Guns ended slavery. Guns conquered the Wild West. Guns are the reason Japan didn't try into invade the main land in World War II. And now some three hundred years after all that started, some Americans such as myself consider a handgun part of their daily attire. So while at I first I wanted to say I didn't think it was true, yeah I guess we are a gun culture after all. As for when I don't carry? Well, with the addition of the Kel-Tec I can tell you that those times are getting fewer and further between. But in addition to the places where I'm prohibited from doing so, I'll add this. I leave my fucking guns at home when I know I'm going to get my drink on.
Why I carry. If I said that among my many reasons for carrying, "because I can," wasn't on the list somewhere, then I would most certainly be lying to you. That's not to say it's my only reason -- or even in the top ten -- but yes it's there. I do believe it's my right and like many things, can melt away when not exercised regularly. But my first and foremost reason is quite simply put, for insurance. Have you ever been mugged before? I haven't. I hope not to. But so did thousands of other people who weren't so lucky. All of the pro-gun literature I've read markets carrying a concealed weapon much like an insurance policy; you hope you never need it but it's there if you do. Another clever catch phrase is, "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." That may be over dramaticizing it a little, but you can't argue with the fundamental truth of it.
Bad neighborhoods. I don't know if it made the news down there in Oz, but this past Christmas a guy went fucking nuts and after dressing as Santa Claus went on a shooting spree that left his ex-wife and eight of her friends and family members dead. These poor fuckers who had absolutely nothing to do with this guy's marriage, just showed up to a party to share some eggnog and give away a blender, and end up getting their chips cashed in by some lunatic. I mean how many of those people extected a gunman to show up at their Christmas party? And you know what really freaked me out? I had just been to a few Christmas parties myself -- I mean who hasn't, tis the season and all that. But that got me to wondering; how many people at the party were divorced? Or getting divorced? Or were helping a friend through a divorce? And of course you have to stop your imagination from getting the best of you, because you don't want to turn into the suspicious asshole seeing danger behind every turn. I guess it's all about playing the odds and where you draw the line between paranoia and preparation. That might sound crazy but for those unlucky nine people in California, the paranoia became the reality.
And so much like the fire extinguisher I carry in my truck, and the flood insurance I have on my house, and the motorcycle helmet I squeeze onto my big fucking head, my two handguns join the legion of Things-I-Hope-I'll-Never-Need-But-Have-If-I-Do. So if I'm ever at a Christmas party and Santa shows up to spead a little more than just good cheer, or if someone decides my wallet would look better in his back pocket than mine, it's my hope that you won't be reading about me being described as, "victim number nine."
Huh, whaddya know, I typed an update after all. And as for Where on Earth, which was the final game challenge of 2008. I'm sorry to say that you were close Tim, but in the end it was Brett who nudged you out.
2008 in pictures, by ze' germans!
hey rusty, it looks like you're not alone.
cannonball run europe - load up. it's time to rally.
sexy amazon goddess, extreme cleavage, and an urban legend.
robbie maddison's 2008 new year's eve las vegas jump in high definition.
best movie mistakes of 2008. besides going to see indiana jones to begin with.
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